Koma Terra Cotta Funerary Figure, Based

Spectacles, in the 13th century? Perhaps. The rings around this face’s eyes certainly look the part.

The Koma people of northern Ghana made it, sometime between the 13th and 17th centuries. Figures from the Koma area were found in and around burial mounds, and are widely believed to have been placed in connection with funerary rites. The face is crowded with modeled detail: studded pellets at the temples, flared nostrils, a broad open mouth showing teeth. A ribbed, crested headdress is divided by a central groove, with a loss at the forehead revealing the clay within. Seven inches tall on a slender modern stand, the surface sandy and weathered.

A face with a great deal to say, and no hurry to say it.